By Rachel Eaton
You may think that everyone in the world speaks English but that is just not the case.
With over 7000 languages in the world, you could suppose that people would speak more than one of those 7000 languages. However, that is not the case, especially here in Britain, where it is reported that 62% of us cannot say Bonjour or Auf Wiedersehen. The British population is one of the most incompetent groups of people when it comes to 'las idiomas' (it’s Spanish for ‘the languages’, for anyone currently typing away in Google Translate).
In a world dominated by the English language, it is understandable that British people don't feel the need to actually put effort into their Duolingo course, however, non-native English speakers don’t have such a luxury. There are only 378 million native English speakers, whilst there are almost double the amount of non-native speakers at 743 million people who suffered through learning why we say ‘Bob’s your altogetherUncle’. I, a part of the 378 million native speakers, may not have a leg to stand on, however, I pride myself in speaking fragmented phrases of different languages in my bedroom, so let me carry on :).
English is the most common second language with 55 countries speaking it as their second language. The EU adopted English as their standard language, which led to France suing them.
So you may be asking, why should I, a native English speaker, learn another language, when I can get away with just speaking my own language in other countries?
Well, English is not the only language!
Mandarin has the most native speakers with about 1.3 billion people. Other languages like Hindi, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Arabic all have approximately 2 billion speakers all together in the world. So learning another language will allow you to speak to a wider range of people with different backgrounds and experiences. Foreign language studies enhance listening skills and memory, strengthening the mind's ability to focus. Why would you not want to have more opportunities and be more culturally aware because you speak more than one language?
So how do you do it?
Instead of relying on your Spanish lessons in secondary school which only teach you to describe what the photo has in it, you should try to acquire a language, which is a "subconscious process identical to the process children utilise in acquiring their first language." So instead of learning the rules of a language just and how to conjugate verbs, you should learn to think in a language and speak it naturally. Ways you can do this are by immersing in the culture of the country the language is from, like listening to their music or watching popular shows in the language. The best possible way would be to travel to the country and speak with locals and pick up new words, however, that is possible for most.
English is the most common second language.
Say you wanted to learn Spanish, start listening to Spanish music and watching Spanish shows, you could watch shows you are very familiar with in Spanish. Instead of making notes and learning words and their definitions try to subconsciously pick up the language in a similar way to which you would have acquired your native language as a child.
I’m not telling you to devote your life to becoming a multi-linguist, but before you go abroad on your next package holiday maybe acquire how to ask for a drink in the local language from watching a Netflix show instead of expecting everyone to speak in your language.
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